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Levi Goddard Kendall (1827-1906)
|Citizen_of=United States }} Childhood (1827-1849) We do not have primary evidence for Levi's birth - the Boston Vital Records Office does not have a record for him. The date of his birth comes from narratives written near or at the end of his life, and presumably reflect the day that he celebrated as his birthday. The claim that he was born in Boston can be found in the marriage index of his second marriage, in 1871. It should also be noted that the primary narrative we have of his life (the biography of his son), the information on his early life is quite unreliable. For example, it gives his father as Andrew Kendall; but Andrew was his grandfather. I have been able to find confirmation in census records for some, but not all, of the siblings claimed for him. Levi's father, Stephen Jennings Kendall, had left his natal town of Royalston and was living in the neighboring town of Warwick when he married Ruth Bliss Fisher. We don't know when he moved to Boston or why. According to Andrew Kendall's will, Stephen's children spent the summer of 1828 living in Andrew's house in Royalston. When Stephen died in 1832, Ruth moved back to Royalston with her children, presumably living either with her family or one of Stephen's brothers. Moving West and starting a career and family: 1848-1860 In 1848 or '49, Levi began working for the Vermont & Massachusetts Railroad, initially as a "section man." I believe the position describes a person responsible for maintaining a section of trackhttp://railways-atlas.tapor.ualberta.ca/cocoon/atlas/Excerpts-5-2-4/. He was promoted rapidly, becoming foreman in 6 months and baggagemaster 6 months after that''Memorial and Biographical Record''. Construction of the V&M RR, which connected Brattleboro, Vt., with Fitchburg and Greenfield, Mass., started in 1845 and was completed in 1850http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/abnere1.Html; Poor, 1860, pp. 158-159.. At the 1850 census he was living in a boarding house in Fitchburg, and listed his occupation as "brakeman." In 1852, Levi married Abigail Barrell, daughter of Nelson Barrell and Mehitable Jones, in Keene, NH.Whitcomb, 1905. Abbie was living in Keene,Whitcomb, 1905. which is across the Connecticut River from Brattleboro, but she grew up in Massachusetts. Indeed, Levi may well have met her in Fitchburg, where her mother was living in 1850, and where Levi was still living at the time of their marriage.Whitcomb, 1905. Another possibility for their meeting was that she might have travelled regularly on the Vermont & Massachusetts between Fitchburg and Brattleboro. There is now a RR track on the NH side of the river as well - when was this built? Was there a bridge or ferry between Brattleboro and Keene?. By 1857, when their son William was born, Levi and Abbie were living in Hoosick Falls, NY Memorial and Biographical Record. Unfortunately, New York was not keeping vital records at this time; perhaps there is a baptism record at one of the Hoosick Falls churches. . Here Levi was presumably working on the last section of track linking Boston to Troy, NY, the section from Hoosick Falls to the Vermont state line being completed in March 1859 by the Troy and Bennington Company; train service on this route was operated by the Troy and Boston Railroad CompanyPoor, 1860, p. 318.. In 1858 Levi moved to northern Illinois, where he worked on building a stretch of track from Harvard to Rockford for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad.Memorial and Biographical Record. In 1860 Levi and his family were living in Caledonia, which is about 2/3 of the way from Harvard to Rockford. The census gives his occupation simply as "Laborer," but William's biography says that he was a "foreman of construction under contractors." The Civil War On August 7, 1862, Levi enlisted in Company H of the 21st Wisconsin Infantry; he gave his home as Fond du Lac. Vol. 2, p. 191. He was enrolled as a corporal, presumably because of his age and experience managing work crews. Just two months later, on October 8, the regiment was involved in the Battle of Perryville in Boyle County, Kentucky, the turning point of the Confederate Heartland Campaign in that state. The 21st Wisconsin had had little time to train - they had to travel more than 500 miles from Fond du Lac to Perryville - and they suffered heavy casualties when the Confederates charged that afternoon. Indeed, more men of Company H died that day - including the captain - than in any other battle of the war.Wisconsin Volunteers, vol. 2, pp. 189-192. Several men of the company are listed as having deserted that day. Levi's obituary states that he served for nearly a year, and William's biography states that he fought in the battles of Champion Hills and Murfreesboro, being discharged with a wounded right hand. His application for a Civil War pension also makes this claim. However, the official records indicate that he was one of the men who deserted at the Battle of Perryville,Wisconsin Volunteers, vol. 2, p. 191. and his pension claim was denied. This raises some interesting questions: did he delay a year before coming home, and fabricate the story of his service to his family when he returned? If so, what did he do during that time? Why did he think that he would succeed in his pension application? To be fair, it is also possible (though unlikely) that the desertion record was an error; but if that were the case, we would expect him to have appealed the rejection of his pension application (he did not). Widowship and remarriage: 1865-1875 From 1863 to 1870 Levi was a roadmaster on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad,Memorial and Biographical Record. which ran between Cincinnati, Ohio, and East St. Louis, Illinois. In 1867 the family was living in Vincennes, Indiana, when Levi's wife Abby died. Within a year, Levi was back in Massachusetts for a visit, where he married Abby's younger sister Louisa. We can only speculate how this came about. Perhaps Levi had taken his young son back to Massachusetts to meet his grandmothers and aunts and uncles, and romance spontaneously blossomed. Perhaps the plan for the marriage developed through correspondance after Levi wrote to tell Abby's family the sad news. Maybe Louisa had always been fond of Levi - she was 14 when he married her sister. Or perhaps it was primarily a marriage of convenience - Levi needed a mother for his young son, and Louisa, at 30 years of age, was facing dwindling prospects for marriage. Railroading in Wisconsin In 1870 Levi returned the the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, where he first helped lay the company's first steel rails on the line between Chicago and Evanston, IL, before returning to Wisconsin.Memorial and Biographical Record. Bringing 100 men from Chicago, he was "Assistant Superintendent of Construction" on the line between Madison and Baraboo, Wisconsin. He worked in that capacity until the road passed beyond Baraboo and reached "tunnel No. 1", near the present-day town of Kendall.Memorial and Biographical Record. Here he apparently did some adept real-estate trading. This was the start of the "hill section", where an increased grade required extra engines to pull the train, and would require a large roundhouse and extensive railroad facilities. He bought property adjacent to the railroad right-of-way, and subsequently (presumably after the construction of the railroad yards had begun and the value of the site had increased) sold the land to a developer who subdivided the property to create the village that would provide housing and amenities to the railroad workers. In 1873 he was appointed roadmaster on the Madison division and supervised the laying of track from Elroy to Sparta, as well as subsequently replacing that line with steel rails.Memorial and Biographical Record. From 1889 until his retirement he was foreman of the Baraboo railroad yards.Memorial and Biographical Record. In the early 1870's he made his home in Baraboo, where he lived for the rest of his life. Notes __SHOWFACTBOX__